Wednesday, December 5, 2012

The Fly-by Media: Journalists and Drones

Pssst...Rupert...
From the Washington Times:

Here comes the fly-by media. Preliminary use of diminutive drones is
under way among those who see the potential of drones in news gathering,
not to mention invasive “gotcha”-style journalism. Deadline Detroit —
“a homegrown media revolution” manned by former veteran journalists —
has already used footage made by “Tretch5000,” an anonymous hobbyist who
used a camera-mounted drone to peek inside abandoned housing and old
civic buildings, producing a telling video vignette.

“There’s a
part of me that finds this kind of creepy and fraught with ‘big brother
is watching’ issues. While we might trust public radio journalists and
academics, there were rumors earlier this week that TMZ had purchased a
drone to assist in its paparazzi-style coverage of celebrities,” says Vince Duffy, chairman of the Radio Television Digital News Association.

Trust public radio journalists and academics? Unless you're talking Mother Teresa reincarnated and off to J school, I don't trust nobody. Here's the kind of crud attracted to this stuff:

"If you're concerned about it, maybe there's a reason we
should be flying over you, right?" said Douglas McDonald, the company's
director of special operations and president of a local chapter of the
unmanned vehicle trade group....

We've probably all known the creepazoid military/law enforcement
wannabe. They came out of the woodwork after 9/11 and dealing with them
was just yucky. It's been a while for me but just seeing that in print
reminded me of how loathsome the type is.

...Doug has more than 20 years of applied research, planning and
development experience focusing on strategic development, unmanned
systems, socio-economics and demography. He is a sociologist and holds
an undergraduate and graduate degree from the University of North
Dakota. Doug’s business consulting experience includes assignments in
unmanned systems, aerospace, value-added agriculture, information
technology, and manufacturing....